Kentucky recruit Tyler Ulis spent Martin Luther King Day at Jefferson High School last year.

Lenzelle Smith Jr., who should pass 1,000 career points with Ohio State later this year, was at Hononegah on MLK Day four years ago.

When Mike Miller started Hononegah's MLK tournament 11 years ago, he also started a trend, both in this area and around the state. MLK tournaments are becoming more and more popular, and they've brought some of the best basketball in the state to the Rockford area.

"Lenzelle Smith played for Zion-Benton. He was here. We beat him," Miller said. "Joseph Bertrand from Illinois was here. There are probably 10 different guys that are playing major Division I basketball right now that participated in this tournament.

"It's neat for the kids in our community to say, 'I watched this guy, this guy and this guy and now I see him on ESPN all the time.' "

Local basketball teams will be playing in at least eight different MLK tournaments today, Saturday and Monday. Boys teams will be at Hononegah, South Beloit, Jefferson and Lake Zurich. Girls tournaments with area teams entered include Byron, DeKalb, Kewanee and Chicago Marshall.

Basketball people have gotten excited about MLK tournaments for three reasons:

The competition. Hononegah's tournament includes Auburn, giving it two of the NIC-10's best, and brings in three strong teams from the Chicago Suburbs, plus two from Normal as well as DeKalb. Jefferson's second-year tourney mixes Class 3A power Lutheran and both Belvidere schools with four Chicago-area teams.

"You are going to play teams that you don't see and have never played," Jefferson coach Todd Brannan said. "You want to have your kids tested and pushed."

New faces. NIC-10 champion Belvidere was only 2-2 in the first year of the Jefferson tourney last year, but that was good for the Bucs.

"I like it because it's more competitive," said Joe Byers, the Bucs' NIC-10 MVP. "We're playing bigger schools from the suburbs. It shows us what we're made of. We get to see some of the best players in the country. It's different. We're not used to it. It comes out of nowhere between conference games, but it's nice."

Two years ago, Belvidere North won the Byron girls tournament and went on to reach the Class 3A supersectionals. And last year Byron beat North before reaching the 2A supersectionals.

"That was the win that showed our kids we could play with anybody in the state," Byron coach Eric Yerly said.

The timing. "It's nice having it closer to the postseason," Byron senior point guard Mayson Whipple said. "It has more value now. We're playing in tougher situations, and in regionals it's going to be tough, and if you go farther in the postseason it's going to be even tougher. The more we get used to it now, the better."

Page 2 of 2 - "If something doesn't work in the MLK tournament, it's OK," agreed Jefferson's Brannan. "If something doesn't work in the regional, then your season is over."

Mat Parker started South Beloit's tournament in his second year as the Sobos coach. Now he is the athletic director for RPS 205 and is starting a Thanksgiving tournament next year that includes Auburn, East, Guilford and Belvidere plus Proviso West, North Chicago, Wheaton Warrenville-South, Chicago Richards and, hopefully, two more teams. Westchester St. Joseph's has committed to the 10-team tournament in 2015.

"In a few years, it's going to be the premier kickoff tournament in the region if not the state," Parker said.

Parker thinks Thanksgiving and MLK weekend are the two most important times to play in a strong tournament.

"I always wanted my team to get a good dose of reality in a Thanksgiving tournament to get a good idea of what you need to work on," Parker said. "And I wanted to get regional tournament pressure four weeks before regionals. It's very advantageous to play at that time of the year."

Last year, Jefferson made a surprise run all the way to the sectional finals after hosting its first MLK tourney.

"We didn't play well in our tourney, but right after the tournament, we started playing our best," Brannan said. "You want to have your kids tested and pushed against teams that you don't see and have never played."

South Beloit and Jefferson started their tournaments after seeing Hononegah's success. Byron's tournament was started by former girls coach Wade Heisler, who came from Hononegah. So all the local MLK tourneys trace their roots to Hononegah coach Mike Miller.

"I've been around long enough where I'm the grandfather in a lot of ways now," Miller said. "We've had success and other people have noticed. If we have become a model for some other teams to follow, that's a nice thing.

"We didn't have any grand schemes to start a trend. We just wanted to make our program important and the best it can be. And people got excited about the idea early. It's this area's greatest-kept secret, how good these teams are in this tournament and the players that have been in it."